Vivi tried to give them a reassuring smile, but she knew they’d have no trouble seeing through it. Tiffany and the Henosis talisman were gone. The immediate danger was over. But the losses had shaken Kappa to the core. Though it was hard to believe, their beloved, fearless president was gone. And while the pain over Tiffany’s death would be far more complicated, it wouldn’t lessen their grief over the sister they’d lost in more ways than one.
Marjorie Winter, Scarlett’s mother, arrived around three a.m. Vivi wasn’t sure if one of the Ravens had called her or if she had a magical means of knowing when her daughter needed her. Perhaps it was the latter, because shortly before dawn, there was another knock on the door, and this time, it was Daphne.
Somehow, Vivi wasn’t surprised to see her mother on the front steps. She didn’t even bother asking how Daphne knew what had happened. That was just her mother’s way. She always knew. And for once, Vivi found that fact supremely comforting.
“You’re okay,” Daphne said with a sigh after she’d examined Vivi from all angles.
“More or less. Do you want to come in?”
Daphne hesitated a moment, then nodded. “I suppose it makes more sense than standing in the doorway until the sun comes up.” She took a few cautious steps into the foyer, as if half expecting to be thwarted by some spell. She followed her daughter into the living room, but before Vivi could make introductions, Marjorie jumped up from the chair where she’d been keeping watch over Scarlett.
“Daphne Devereaux?” Marjorie said, rubbing her eyes.
“Hello, Marjorie,” Daphne said. There was just a hint of frostiness in her voice, but when her gaze settled on the sleeping Scarlett, she asked softly, “How’s your girl?”
Marjorie reached out and gently stroked Scarlett’s hair. “She’ll be okay in time.”
Scarlett rolled over and slowly opened her eyes. “Mom?” she said groggily. “What are you doing here?”
Mei and Jess exchanged glances, then began to usher the other Ravens out of the living room. Vivi and Scarlett began to tell their moms what had happened, taking turns and filling in the gaps in each other’s stories. “I’m so sorry you girls had to go through that,” Daphne said, squeezing Vivi’s hand. “This is exactly what I was trying to help you avoid, but I don’t think I went about it in the smartest way.”
“You did your best,” Marjorie said crisply in an assured tone even Vivi would have trouble arguing with. “After what happened with Evelyn, what other choice did you have?”
Scarlett looked from Marjorie to Daphne, clearly startled. “Evelyn Waters? What about her?”
“Evelyn was my best friend,” Daphne explained. “We’d been attached at the hip since freshman year, when we both joined Kappa. We both came from modest backgrounds, unlike some of the others in our pledge class, witches from old magical families.” Daphne gave Scarlett’s mother a pointed look.
Marjorie sighed heavily. “After all these years, you’re still harping on this? You’ve become an old magical family, Daphne. Look how powerful your daughter is. You should be proud.”
“You’re right—and I am,” Daphne said, coloring slightly. “But at the time, I didn’t see how I could compare to witches like you, with your connections, or Evelyn, with all her natural talent. She was named president, a huge accomplishment, but she soon began to act erratically. I think the pressure might’ve been too much for her; she felt like she had to prove herself, demonstrate that she had what it took to be a real player in the magical world. But her spellwork couldn’t quite keep up with her ambition. She was stretching her magic as far as it could go, and she grew frustrated. That’s when she became interested in the talisman. Everything came easier to her when she was wearing it, and eventually, she became dependent on it. Almost addicted to its power.”
“We didn’t know exactly what was going on,” Marjorie added, “but it was clear that something was very, very wrong, and whenever one of us tried to talk to Evelyn about it, she’d grow furious.”
“When she learned that she was going to be removed as president, she just sort of . . . snapped.” Daphne winced at the memory. “I started to suspect that she was planning something terrible. She’d grown careless about covering her tracks, and I sensed she was planning to hurt the girl who’d been nominated in her place.”
“Evelyn asked me to meet her at the beach one night,” Marjorie said quietly. “I never should’ve gone alone, but she insisted, and she was still our president. A powerful one, at that.”
“I followed them,” Daphne continued. “Thank goodness, I arrived just in time. It took both of us to fight her off.”
The older women fell silent.
“So, her disappearance?” Vivi asked after a long moment.
“It was just the story we told,” Marjorie said wearily. “Evelyn died trying to kill us. She summoned a tidal wave onto the beach and we barely managed to escape before she was swept away herself. Daphne and I decided it was too dangerous to keep the talisman at Kappa. Someone else might be tempted to do what Evelyn had done.”
“So I volunteered to take it, to keep it on the move. Away from anyone evil.” Daphne placed her hand on Vivi’s shoulder. “I’ll admit . . . I was afraid of it. I blamed the talisman for making Evelyn so dangerous. I thought it might do the same to me or to anyone who came into contact with it.”
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Vivi said, her cheeks beginning to flush with shame and regret. “I shouldn’t have taken the talisman. If I hadn’t given it to Dahlia—or, well, Tiffany—maybe none of this would have happened.”
Daphne shook her head emphatically. “No, it’s my fault. I should have told you all this a long time ago. I thought that by keeping you ignorant and far away from Westerly, I was keeping you safe.”
“Whereas I wanted to raise you and Eugenie to be stronger and smarter than I was,” Marjorie said, facing Scarlett. “I figured if you were the most powerful witches in your years, then you’d never fall into the trap of idolizing the wrong person the way I did.”
Scarlett grimaced. “No, I was just the girl who didn’t notice her best friend had become a murderer.”
“But once you learned who she really was, you did the right thing, didn’t you?”
“She did,” Vivi answered for her. Scarlett had risked her life to rescue Vivi. Whatever their differences, they were sisters. In some ways, her mother had been right—magic was far more dangerous than Vivi had realized. But even the evilest magic couldn’t destroy what Vivi had witnessed in the clearing, a force more powerful than curses and tornadoes, more powerful than fear itself: sisterhood.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Scarlett
Two days—two long days—after her entire world had changed, Scarlett sat staring out her bedroom window, thinking the same thoughts that had been spiraling through her mind on repeat for the past forty-eight hours. How had she missed what Tiffany had become? How could the girl she’d danced on tables with, the girl who’d held her hand whenever Eugenie made her cry, be capable of murder?